Drones are one more reason Biden got bounced from office

OPINION:

The drones, the drones, everyone’s talking about the drones — except the government.

On Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas appeared on a morning talk show to explain the hundreds of drones that have been spotted flying over New Jersey.

“There’s no question that people are seeing drones. And I want to assure the American public that we, in the federal government, have deployed additional resources, personnel, technology, to assist the New Jersey State Police in addressing the drone sightings,” he said.

Well, that’s no answer to the questions everyone is asking: What are they, and where are they coming from?

“Some of those drone sightings are, in fact, drones,” Mr. Mayorkas said. “Some are manned aircraft that are commonly mistaken for drones. There are thousands of drones flown every day in the United States, recreational drones, commercial drones. That is the reality, and in September of 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA, changed the rules so that drones could fly at night.”

So the government’s answer is simple: Thousands of people suddenly started flying drones … at night … in 20-degree weather.

In short, the government’s answer is, we don’t know. But that’s silly. Of course the government knows what’s going on, and one explanation makes more sense than all the others: It’s the government flying the drones.

A retired Marine colonel and expert on defense and security for the Center for Strategic and International Studies put it simply.

“Usually when they don’t say anything, it’s because the information will embarrass them in some way,” Mark Cancian told the New York Post. “It’s entirely possible that they tested UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] out and created public hysteria, and are now embarrassed to say, ‘It was us.’”

Among all the theories — which include conspiracies that the federal government is searching for lost radioactive material or nuclear warheads — that’s the simplest explanation, and it’s backed up by one big fact: The mystery drone sightings have been reported flying over the Army’s Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, which has been devising robotic drones that can generate three-dimensional maps of urban areas and engage in surveillance to counter weapons of mass destruction.

The White House is suspiciously quiet, having said next to nothing in the last few days. The last time officials addressed the issue was Monday, and they didn’t do anything to ease the angst.

In a press briefing, one reporter noted that President-elect Donald Trump “indicated perhaps that you know more than you’re letting on, and said that you should stop keeping people in suspense, that you should tell them what you know.”

White House national security communications adviser John Kirby went to great lengths to say nothing. 

“I would say that we are making a very good-faith effort to be as open and direct with all of you and with the American people as we can. And that will continue. That will continue all throughout the coming days. There’s absolutely no effort to be anything other than as upfront as we can be,” he said.

Then Mr. Kirby told the media how to do their jobs.

“But I want to stress again: Please, if you do anything in your coverage, please make sure that you remind people that there are over a million legal drones in the country and that thousands of them are flying around on any given day, legally, lawfully, performing valuable services, including for the betterment of citizens on the ground.”

Using the same talking points as the homeland security secretary, Mr. Kirby said Americans are simply mistaken. “Having closely examined the data, having closely looked at the tips and collated them as best we can from concerned citizens, we assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and even stars that were mistakenly reported as drones.”

Well, that’s just silly. Remember a while back when no drones were flying over New Jersey? In the last few weeks, the FBI has received more than 5,000 reports of drones flying over New Jersey. So the government comes out and says, no, there’s just a lot of people flying drones — at night — and hey, people are really dumb; some of those are stars. 

President Biden made no sense when he commented on the issue for the first time on Tuesday. “Nothing nefarious, apparently,” he said of the drones. “But they’re checking it all out. I think it’s just one — there’s a lot of drones authorized that’s up there. I think one started and they all got, everybody wanted to get in their deal.”

Now, that’s just a lie. And that’s just another reason Americans voted Mr. Biden out of office.

• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on X @josephcurl.